7 Oregon Activists In California To Help With Immigration Protest

Published 5:00 pm Monday, March 10, 2014

Oregon Public Broadcasting

Seven Oregon immigration activists are among a group that plans to greet undocumented deportees involved in a anticipated border crossing and protest Monday morning in California.

The Bring Them Home project by the National Immigrant Youth Alliance plans to attempt Monday to unite 250 families separated by deportation by trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Oregon group is made up of immigrants and allies who left Thursday to be a part of the two-day demonstration.

Around 100 organizers all over the country plans to greet 150 undocumented deportees who have family in the U.S. in entering the country through the Otay Mesa checkpoint at 10 a.m. on Monday.

Only one person will be trying to return to Oregon, so the Oregon contingent plans to assist Washington and Nevada organizers as well.

Deportees will present themselves at the checkpoint, and Oregon organizer Lilian Luna says, “If they get released, we’ll welcome them and take them home.”

Last year was the first time Bring Them Home attempted to bring deported immigrants back into the U.S.

Luna says they were arrested and then processed and held for two weeks before being released in America.

“We don’t know what will happen on Monday,” Luna says. “There are many possibilities.”

National Immigrant Youth Alliance was founded in 2010 by young undocumented immigrants. Since President Barack Obama took office in 2009, almost 2 million immigrants have been deported.

The Obama Administration has made some changes to immigration, like creating a new policy that allows young immigrants to stay in the U.S. if they’ve lived in the country before they were 16, if they don’t have a criminal record and aren’t a security risk.

This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Marketplace